PacWest Bancorp sold a $3.5 billion asset-backed loan portfolio to Ares Management Corp., offloading more assets to boost liquidity amid concern about deposit outflows.
Ares’s Alternative Credit funds bought the specialty finance portfolio backed by assets including consumer loans, mortgages and timeshare receivables, the fund manager said in a statement Monday. PacWest said in a filing that the first tranche of the deal closed last week and generated $2 billion of cash proceeds before transaction costs.
PacWest, a Beverly Hills-based regional bank, is bolstering its finances after runs on deposits struck several regional lenders earlier this year, leading to the collapse of three California-based banks and one in New York.
Earlier this month, it completed the first part of the sale of a separate $5.7 billion loan portfolio to real estate investment company Kennedy Wilson Holdings Inc. That transaction followed a March deal that brought it $1.4 billion from a financing facility provided by Apollo Global Management-owned investment firm Atlas SP Partners.
Bloomberg reported in April that PacWest was considering the sale of its lender finance arm and loans associated with the platform.
Read More: PacWest Bosses Were Trying to Start Over. Then SVB Failed
PacWest hasn’t been the only firm to turn to asset managers to help shrink the balance sheet amid deposit outflows. In May, Atlas SP, Angelo Gordon and Varde Partners — in partnership with Pagaya Technologies — bought a pool of consumer loans from a US credit union to raise liquidity amid banking-sector turmoil.
PacWest shares rose 6.1% in early trading in New York. Its stock slumped 69% this year through Friday amid the turmoil.
The portfolio purchased by Ares has an aggregate commitment amount of $3.54 billion, including an outstanding principal balance of $2.21 billion, PacWest said in the filing.
(Updates with PacWest’s recent deals and history starting in fourth paragraph.)
Author: Max Reyes and Michael J. Moore
